What is the best software program for converting flac to other formats? Also, I would appreciate it if someone could post a URL or direct me to a thread or threads where I can read about things like converting from vinyl and other formats. I have seen many posts which contain the log files of the conversion process.

I have found that many people trading music (not on this site) that post flacs which originally came from a lower quality format such as 128 bit mp3's. It does not take a brain surgeon to piece the logic together wherein the quality you start with will be evident in the file output despite it being a "flac" file. It is extremely annoying and frustrating to spend time trading music only to find when I listen to a supposed "flac" file it sounds absolutely horrible because the highs and lows have been filtered out or imperfections are present which should not be the case if they are truly lossless. Thanks in advance for your help.

Regarding conversion from vinyl - I've seen a few threads here and there where lineage has been stated -

Vinyl -> DAT or
LP -> CDR

without any indication of what was used to make the transfer. Lots of traders happy to tell us what Mics they used, what Pre-amp, what Recording Deck in the live context, but nobody seems to consider it important to specify what record deck was used in the transfer process. I've asked in threads what was used for the transfer, but to no reply.

If you're going to digitise some vinyl, you should go for the absoute best front-end you can afford. The old computing rule applies - Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you play your LPs on a plastic, cheap-as-chips deck, you'll get FLACs with a plastic, cheap-as-chips sound. Get a quality deck, tonearm and cartridge, and you'll end up with quality FLACs.

Tempting to suggest that if you can't afford the gear, to search around for someone who does, and who has the capability to do a better transfer than you.

What is classed as a high-end turntable will vary in different territories, of course, but my benchmark in the UK for quality hardware would be something by Linn, Rega, Thorens, or maybe Pro-ject as a bare minimum.

Information on the tonearm and cartridge used would also be of help to future traders and archivists.

a great help for finding stuff on this forum (and others like it) is the "search" function at the top of the page. if you click on 'advanced search' there it takes you to a page where you can really narrow it down, search only specific forums, posts by certain users, search titles only etc.

so searching technobabble for the word "vinyl" in the title I dug up some old threads on the topic, if you don't find everything you were looking for in these just post back and we'll do our best to help you out!

Modern social theory casts a highly skeptical eye on any declaration that a group of persons is without conflict, and insists, on the contrary, that conflict is natural to groups, and even more, is essential to them. -Patrick Henry

Regarding conversion from vinyl - I've seen a few threads here and there where lineage has been stated -

Vinyl -> DAT or
LP -> CDR

without any indication of what was used to make the transfer. Lots of traders happy to tell us what Mics they used, what Pre-amp, what Recording Deck in the live context, but nobody seems to consider it important to specify what record deck was used in the transfer process. I've asked in threads what was used for the transfer, but to no reply.

If you're going to digitise some vinyl, you should go for the absoute best front-end you can afford. The old computing rule applies - Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you play your LPs on a plastic, cheap-as-chips deck, you'll get FLACs with a plastic, cheap-as-chips sound. Get a quality deck, tonearm and cartridge, and you'll end up with quality FLACs.

Tempting to suggest that if you can't afford the gear, to search around for someone who does, and who has the capability to do a better transfer than you.

What is classed as a high-end turntable will vary in different territories, of course, but my benchmark in the UK for quality hardware would be something by Linn, Rega, Thorens, or maybe Pro-ject as a bare minimum.

Information on the tonearm and cartridge used would also be of help to future traders and archivists.

complete agreement

jeppolit -- if you've got some really rare vinyl boots and there isn't a decent transfer out there circulating, finding a Thorens or Rega deck and using say a Grado cartridge would be worth it imo...i typically only transfer for personal archival reasons, so i just use my DJ gear...still i like to keep as much info as possible...